Martin Lewis has issued a warning to anyone who has a fixed rate energy deal or is thinking about getting one. Speaking on X, the money saving expert told people on fixed tariffs from providers like E.on, OVO, Octopus, British Gas, Outfox the Market and SSE that they could escape from their current deals, within a certain time frame.
He said: “A quick energy need to know if you’re on a fixed tariff or thinking of getting one. They cannot charge you early exit fees if you leave a fix within the last 50 days. So from day 49 onwards, no early exit penalties. You’re absolutely free to leave if you choose to. So it’s a very good idea to work out when your fix ends and put 50 days beforehand in your diary to do a comparison to see if you can then find anything cheaper.
« If you can, you’re free to switch and they can’t lock you in with penalties. If you can’t, stay where you are and milk it out till the last moment.”
An increase to the energy price cap, the maximum price that can be charged for each unit of energy, is set to leave people paying 6.4% more from April, meaning a typical household will pay £1,849 for their energy over the course of a year.
Mr Lewis has previously talked about the price cap in great detail and recently urged anybody on a price cap plan to get off of it as soon as possible.
He said: “If you are on a Price Cap tariff, it’s a pants cap. If you possibly can, you want to get off it, get off it quickly and fix.
« In simple terms, that means for every £100 of energy you pay right now, from 1 April, and through May and June, you will pay £106.40 for it. »
The finance wizard suggested to his followers that they look for energy deals where the rate sits below the current price cap.
He added: « What should you do about it? Well, let’s do this really simply. Right now, the cheapest fixed rate tariffs are 4% below the current Price Cap. There’s the current Price Cap. But in April, that Price Cap is going up by 6.4%.
« And after April, we think in July, because wholesale rates have dropped a little bit recently, it might come down a little, but still won’t be as low as the current Price Cap. And then in October it will go up and stay around that level.
« But on the current predictions, you can fix now and save money, and you can certainly save substantially once it goes up in April. So what you want to do is do a whole of market comparison to find your cheapest fix, because your cheapest fix depends on where you live and how much you use.”
Mr Lewis also had a word of warning for tricks that energy companies take to make it harder for consumers to get the best deal.
He said: « Remember, most comparison sites hide tariffs that don’t pay them by default. You have to find a little button and click ‘show me all tariffs’ if you want to see them. Or even better, you could just use my MoneySavingExpert.com Cheap Energy Club comparison that automatically shows you all the tariffs. So that is roughly what you should be doing.”
